This
view of the west coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, taken from the space
shuttle, shows the entire 50-kilometer length of the 1859 lava flow from
Mauna Loa volcano. This is one of the largest lava flows in the world
that has been erupted in historic times. The eruption occurred at the
11,000-foot elevation level (close to the summit at right), lasted about
200 days, and produced a pahoehoe and a’a lava flow that traveled
all the way to the coast (left). Although one of the largest young lava
flows on Earth, the Mauna Loa flow is small compared to most of the flows
seen on Mars (slide #6), Io (slide
#7), and Venus (slide #8).